Providing Vital Winter Warmth To Ukraine - With Love From New Zealand

New Zealand charitable organisation, Kiwi K.A.R.E (Kiwi Aid & Refugee Evacuation), which has been operating in Ukraine for nearly eighteen month's, supplying medical and humanitarian aid into forward areas behind the front line, has launched a new fundraising initiative to manufacture over 1,000 lifesaving wood burning stoves and water heaters for the people of Ukraine.

Kiwi K.A.R.E Chairman, Tenby Powell, says this latest initiative follows a trial run last year which was hugely successful.

“When we first distributed heaters and stoves last year, many who received them said they were lifesavers. Such was their success that word has spread like wildfire – quite literally. Currently we have requests for over 1000 and anticipate this will easily grow to 1200.”

As with many initiatives in war torn Ukraine, Kiwi K.A.R.E’s approach for the project has been to work with what is available, remodelling old recycled electrical water cylinders.

“We put a call out on social media for donations of old water cylinders and they have come pouring in from all over Ukraine”, says Powell. “The old cylinders are stripped down to access the core tank. This is then cut and welded into various sized stoves and water boilers.

At a build cost of between $160 and $260, Kiwi K.A.R.E is now launching a dedicated fundraising initiative aimed at finding the $250,000 necessary to support those families in most need.

“Eastern European winters are harsh, and we know the inevitable targeting by Russia of civilian infrastructure, such as power and water facilities, will come once again”, says Powell. “We are doing our best to get ahead of that and the snow fall”.

Kiwi K.A.R.E has started a new Give-a-Little page called Providing Vital Winter Warmth - with Love from New Zealand, specifically aimed at raising the funds needed to continue collecting old electrical water cylinders and re-purposing them into the stoves and water heaters.

Powell says each stove has a metal plaque attached which simply says, ‘With Love from New Zealand’.

“Our little country, on the other side of the world is becoming well known in Ukraine due to the stellar service of many New Zealanders who have come to support them in their darkest hour during an existential and genocidal war”.

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